Content providers charge users for access to content. In many cases, the user pays a one-time fee to become authorized for unlimited access to the content. This is the case, for example, where physical media containing the content is purchased, or where an open-format content file is downloaded from the content provider. The authorized user can then access the content using any compatible device as often as the authorized user desires. For example, a music company (content provider) may sell a music CD to a user who can then play it as often as he likes in any of a number of home, car, or portable CD players.
Content providers wish to prevent unauthorized users from accessing and duplicating content that has been licensed to an authorized user. In the past, the physical format of the content made it impractical to copy and so possession of the content was tantamount to authorization. For example, possession of music recording in the form of an analog magnetic tape or LP did not enable the possessor to create unlimited copies of quality equal to the original. In contrast, digital recordings are easy to copy and so content providers have been reluctant to provide digital content without a means of preventing its access by unauthorized users. Nearly all current systems for preventing unauthorized access to digital content do so by encrypting the content so that it can be accessed only on a specific device owned by the authorized user and identified at the time the content is purchased. The content can never be used with a different device. Such content is called “device-authorized content” because the content is now associated not with a user, but only with a specific device. That system has a very significant problem in that it greatly limits the authorized user's access to the content by forcing the user to use a single access device even though the user may have multiple devices that could otherwise access the content. For example, a digital music file purchased with authorized access by a single digital music player cannot be played on other players owned by the purchaser. Therefore, if the authorized device is lost, broken, or replaced, the content becomes inaccessible despite the fact that the user purchased unlimited access.
One solution to this problem is for the user to authorize each of the devices owned by the user for the specific content. In that case, however, if the user owns three devices, the user must carry out three transactions to get three instances of the content to work on each of the three devices. When the user acquires a new device, the user must procure new instances of all the user's content (possibly thousands of items) for the new device. Therefore, current systems for preventing unauthorized access to licensed digital content have the undesired effect of actually authorizing only a device, not a user, thereby restricting the authorized user's access to the content and creating unwieldy management challenges.
It is therefore desirable to provide network access to content that is user-authorized, rather than device authorized. A user purchasing access to content under such a system would have access to that content using any compatible device.